


The Imaginary Friend

by Yvette J (HowNovel)



Category: Starman (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 08:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4383986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowNovel/pseuds/Yvette%20J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight-year-old Scott Hayden, like many children that age, has an imaginary friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Imaginary Friend

  
**The Imaginary Friend**  
By: Yvette J.

Copyright © July 2015 All rights reserved. This story is a work of fiction based on characters and situations created in the 1984 feature film and 1986-87 television series, STARMAN. It is an amateur publication circulated without profit for the enjoyment of fellow fans. No infringement of existing copyrights is intended.   
  
---  
  
_I had a dream last night,_ thought eight year old Scott Hayden as he looked across the table and saw his foster mother, Eileen Lockhart, sipping her coffee and reading the newspaper. He stirred his oatmeal as he closed his eyes and his mind drifting back to the soft comforting blue light he had seen across his bedroom wall the night before. He was convinced that the blue light was not just a dream, but something real that he had seen in his room when he awoke during the night.

_Was it real?_

To him it was, because it was his friend from far away and like all eight year old boys with imaginary friends, when this light appeared, it would scare away the monsters that persistently seemed to crawl under his bed. This was good because he knew he couldn't call on his foster father to protect him because Kent was not even home. He had gone to pick up a new shipment of flowers for the shop and wouldn’t be back until the following morning.

As his young mind drifted away from his dream; he realized that it was a perfect Saturday morning. Outside the sky was blue and overhead, the sun was shining. Upon finishing his breakfast, he got up from the table, and went outside to play.

Coming outside, he immediately headed towards his favorite place to play, a large sand pile that was back behind the house. While he played, the sun’s warm rays would sometimes be blocked by the clouds that were rolling in. He began to make out shapes of animals and objects through them. On that particular day, he could see dinosaurs and large space ships.

As he continued to stare idly at the sky, he suddenly felt distracted by an unseen presence and the hair on his arms abruptly stood on end. He turned around and spoke, his soft voice filling the area. “Hi Babylon,” he said when a handsome dark headed man in a red and black plaid shirt stood several feet away from him. “You’re here.”

“Of course I am, I come whenever I can, to visit you, Scott Hayden,” he responded.

Although the man’s name was not actually ‘Babylon’, it was a name that the young boy had given him. Scott had no idea what the man’s name was, only that he knew him and was never afraid whenever he would appear.

“I had a dream last night about you,” he said as he stood up, dusted the sand from his shorts, and reached for the hand of his friend.

“Really?” he asked, “and what did you dream?”

“I dreamt that we were on a large round space ship together and you were teaching me lots of neat stuff, like how to navigate using the stars,” Scott said as he looked up at the clouds. When he found a large spherical cloud, he pointed to it as though proud of his discovery. “It looked like that, a large round silver object, and it was the most beautiful thing I ever seen.”

“Really?” he smiled weakly down at the enthusiastic little boy. “What else did you see?”

“Blue light, when I woke up, it was all over my room, too. I wanted to tell Eileen about it, but I don’t think she would have believed me,” he answered as they reached the top of a large hill. He plopped down on the soft green grass, his hands gripping clumps of it and beginning to pull it out of the earth.

“Why wouldn’t she have believed you?” he asked.

“Where have you been? She’s a girl, and girls don’t understand stuff like that,” Scott said confidently. “I read somewhere that boys are better in sciences and math, and girls are better in languages and that kind of stuff,” he wrinkled his small nose and continued his action of removing grass from the ground.

“But the things that girls are good at are also important,” Babylon offered innocently and smiled at the young boy’s assuming stance. “Maybe one day you’ll meet a girl who is as good at understanding the universe as boys like you are.”

“Maybe, but I think you only say that cause you’re older and you probably have kissed a girl before,” Scott said as he put his hand over his stomach and stuck his tongue out. “I don’t know about you, but the thought of kissing a girl gives me indigestion.”

Babylon smiled secretly, but looked innocently at the boy. “You still have a lot to learn, Scott Hayden.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think it has anything to do with kissing girls, and if it does, then I’d rather not even know,” said Scott.

“One day you will learn and understand a whole manner of things. Of that I am almost certain,” Babylon answered, “It will be through learning about your life that you will discover what your mission in life is.”

“A mission, you mean it?” Scott asked. “You always make things sound so cool.” The little boy’s eyes were wide, but he was grateful that his friend helped him to dismiss the whole topic of girls and refocus their energy on more adventurous topics. At that moment, the little boy’s fascinations were to either become a fighter pilot or an astronaut. These sorts of things were much more appealing to an eight-year-old boy anyway, especially since his friends in school always said that girls had cooties.

“I can only imagine what you must be thinking Scott Hayden,” the man said. “You do have a very active imagination."

Scott looked at him and smiled. “Maybe, but Babylon, you’ve got to admit that talking about space ships and traveling among the stars is a far cry more exciting than talking about those creepy girls.”

Babylon began to laugh once again.

Scott looked back up at the sky and could see the clouds had started to shift once again. Instead of mentioning new shapes or ideas about them, his mood became somewhat contemplative. He watched as his friend got down on the ground beside him. “Babylon, do you think my dad’s up there somewhere? Not Kent, but I mean my real dad.”

“Maybe he is out there, but maybe he’s closer to you than you think,” the soft answer emerged. 

“Even though I don’t know him, I sometimes miss him. I wish I could’ve gotten the chance to meet him,” Scott said. “It seems so unfair, but I try to talk to him in my mind, especially when I’m out here by myself.”

“You do? What do you say?”

“I don’t know, stuff like: ‘hi Dad, I hit a triple in yesterday’s baseball game, you should have seen it. Then after I came home, Eileen showed me how to bake chocolate chip cookies and Kent gave me the newest _‘Star Raiders’_ video game’. You know, stuff like that.”

“How did you feel after you have told him about it?” Babylon asked.

“I don’t know, sometimes I think he hears me, but he never answers,” Scott said sadly as a stray tear streamed down his cheek. Upon feeling it, he wiped it quickly away. “Do you know what I really wish?”

“What?”

“I wish my real mom and dad could be here with me,” Scott said. “I mean; I really like Kent and Eileen, they’re nice and all, but I know that they aren’t my real parents.”

“I understand,” Babylon said with a deep sigh. “You tell me that every time we see each other. Maybe one day you and your mom and dad will be together and that wish you carry deep down inside will come true.”

“Maybe,” he said wistfully.

Seconds later, he could suddenly hear Eileen calling his name from the back porch. “Oh well, I guess I better go home now, it’s almost lunch time,” he sighed deeply as he pushed himself off the ground.

“Yes, I have to go home too, but maybe I can come visit you again soon.”

“I hope so,” Scott said softly. “It’s always nice to have you around. Even when we disagree about stuff, we’re still friends, and I think you’ll still be here for me, even when I’m sad. I know that you’re not my dad, but as long as you’re here, then I won’t feel so alone.”

“But you’re not alone, Scott Hayden,” he objected. “You still have Kent and Eileen to look out for you, and as long as they are here, then you’ll always have the protection you need.”

“But, what if something happens to them?” Scott asked as the tears once more began to stream down his cheeks. “You know; like what happened to my mom.” The little boy looked down at the ground dejectedly. It was clear that he was unable to comprehend what it was about him that would make his parents not want him in their lives.

“You must never be hurt by those things you do not understand, Scott Hayden,” his special friend said softly as he placed a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“I’m more scared of being alone than of anything else in the world,” he admitted brokenly. As his friend started to vanish before his eyes, his next words drew him back into the physical realm. “You won’t ever leave me, will you? I mean; if I ever need you, you’ll be here, right?”

“I’ll stay as long as I can,” the honest answer emerged as Babylon’s human form gradually began to fade once again. As he left a soft blue light remained and surrounded the boy.

Without another word, Scott began to wipe his dirty hands on the front of his shorts and with the soft blue light as his guide, he walked back towards the house.

 _One day,_ the being of light thought. _I will come back to you, Scott Hayden, not as a figment of your imagination, but my presence in your life will be real. You will one day discover that all those times that you had spoken to your father on this very hill, he was there watching over you, and sometimes  he was actually with you._

The End


End file.
